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Kapiti Startup Weekend goes international!

What do Kapiti and Arizona have in common? On first glance, not much, but at the end of July, both would have held events facilitated by Global Startup Weekend Coach Shane Reiser. In what is a bit of a coup for Kapiti, the local group of organisers have managed to convince him to jump on a plane and head to New Zealand for Kapiti Startup Weekend.

Shane Reiser is the author of Startup Genome, was the former Chief Operating Officer of Startup Weekend (International) and runs a boutique consultancy Your Ideas are Terrible – specialising in encouraging more corporate innovation.

“This has been over a year in planning” said Rebecca Tayler, head of the Kapiti Startup and Innovate Network. “Shane has this awesome reputation, and lots of experience in the startup scene, and he’s bringing that to Kapiti”. She is excited by the potential for startup ideas in Kapiti, and what this can do to boost economic development in the region.

“We have some amazing talent here, and Kapiti has already achieved notable success in the technology field – with people like Andy and Diane Prow and Scott Houston in our community”, she says “but we need more startups trying new things, and giving it a go”.

Startup Weekend is an easy way to do just that, as it gives people a chance to road test their ideas over the course of a single weekend. “It’s hands-on learning” says Rebecca “and it is intense, but a lot of fun too”. Rebecca is a veteran of several Startup Weekends, and has recently been chosen to represent New Zealand at the Asia-Pacific Startup Weekend Conference.

“We know that Kapiti is an amazing place to live and play – and we want to do our bit to make sure it is an amazing place to work too”, says Rebecca. “And bringing talent like Shane to town, shows that we can put Kapiti on the startup map".